


Backup

by whatamidoing33



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Danny "Danno" Williams Needs a Hug, Episode: s02e15 Mai Ka Wa Kahiko (Out of the Past), Episode: s10e22 Aloha (Goodbye), Feelings, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I'm new to this, Introspection, Light Angst, Mother Hen Steve Makes An Appearance, Post-Finale, Protective Danny "Danno" Williams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26846110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatamidoing33/pseuds/whatamidoing33
Summary: Danny's worried about Steve. It's not his fault painkillers make him paranoid. Post finale one-shot.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 60





	Backup

_February 2012: Adam Charles’s Residence_

“I gotta be honest, brah, I still think this is a little overkill.”

Danny’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Overkill? _Overkill?”_

Toast looked like he deeply regretted speaking up, but it was too late. Danny’s temper has been simmering all day, and he had just been given a perfect opening.

“Overkill, huh? Let me break this down for you. Thirty-two hours ago my daughter was kidnapped. My _daughter_ was _kidnapped_ for seven hours and I had absolutely no clue where she was. For seven. Hours. And in those seven hours, while my daughter was sitting in a storage locker and I was shanghaied into playing chauffeur to her kidnapper and staging the murder of my ex-wife’s husband, do you know what would have been so _amazingly_ helpful?”

“…an encoded tracking chip?”

Danny brought his hands together with a clap, turning to address the room at large. “Ladies and gentlemen, he can be taught!” Never mind that room at large consisted only of himself, a stoned hacker, and three people passed out on a sofa.

Toast raised his hands in surrender. “Say no more Jersey. You wanna protect your kid, I can respect that.” He spun his chair back towards his desk, absently rolling a lollipop around in his mouth as he resumed pecking at his keyboard.

And just like that, Danny felt like an asshole.

He let out a heavy sigh, flopping into the chair in the corner. “Look man, I didn’t mean to yell at you like that. You’re doing me a huge favor, and I appreciate it. I’ve barely slept since—”

“Done!”

“What, seriously?” Danny asked, checking his watch. He stood again, peering over Toast’s shoulder at the tiny computer chip that now sat on his fingertip.

“One encoded tracking chip, as requested. Small enough to fit into a phone, a shoe, a watch, a tooth, that weird piece of skin between your thumb and pointer finger…”

“Woah, buddy! I’m gonna stop you right there. I am not chipping my daughter like a dog.”

Toast raised an eyebrow skeptically as he dropped the chip into a ziploc bag.

“I’m not! This is just a backup plan, it’s completely different.”

Toast opened his mouth, paused, and closed it. Without a word, he turned and ejected something from his computer. Maybe his silence proved Danny’s point, or maybe he just didn’t want to provoke another rant. Danny suspected the latter, but his train of thought was interrupted by something small and blindingly pink being shoved at his face.

“You see this?” Toast asked.

Danny briefly went cross-eyed before backing up a step, and the pink blur turned into a pink flash drive.

Toast, meanwhile, hadn’t bothered to wait for an answer. “This little piece of hardware is the most important bit. Repeat after me: Do Not Lose The Flash Drive.”

There was silence. Danny blinked. Toast did not blink.

“Oh, you actually want me to—”

“Brah, I literally just told you to—”

“Okay, okay! Don’t lose the flash drive. Why, exactly, should I not lose the flash drive?”

Toast grabbed Danny’s hand and set the drive on his palm. “The tracking chip has some seriously heavy encryption on it—and I mean _heavy_ , like, it’d take _me_ a while to hack it once it’s active. This drive, as of five seconds ago, is the only surefire way to access the location of the chip. Please, _please_ do not lose it.”

Danny closed his fist around the key to his sanity—or at least his sleep.

“Trust me buddy, this thing’s not going anywhere.”

* * *

(When sufficient time had passed and Danny was finally sleeping at night, he realized that Toast might have had a point with his ‘overkill’ assessment. So, six months later, when Grace was complaining that her secretly computer-chipped hello kitty watch had stopped ticking, Danny didn’t think too much of it. He simply put the watch in his computer bag, said he’d take a look at it, and sent her off to school. She’d be fine without it for a couple of days. Maybe he’d take her to get a new one next weekend…)

(He picked her up the following Friday. She couldn’t wait to show him her brand new mermaid watch, courtesy of Step-Stan. “Look, Danno, it lights up!” “Wow, monkey! That’s uh, that’s really neat…”)

* * *

_April 2020: Ramshackle House From Hell_

Pain.

His face was throbbing, his shoulders were _screaming_ , and he was pretty positive he had brokena rib or two in the initial crash. But this didn’t stop Danny from warning—taunting, if he was being honest—Evil Thug #2, whose fist he’d become very acquainted with over the past couple hours.

“You have no idea what you’ve stirred up,” he chuckled. He had heard Steve’s voice through the phone—he’d be surprised if Daiyu Mei made it out of this alive. Of course, his taunt earned him another punch in the face, but this one? Totally worth it.

Evil Thug #2 strode out of the room, and Danny flexed his wrists experimentally. Sure, Steve was coming, but Danny wasn’t the kind of guy to hang around (hah) and wait for him to show up. Plus, there was always the slight chance Evil Thug #2 would come back and just shoot him. Nope, Danny was gonna escape. If he could only figure out a way to unhook the chain from the ceiling…

Just as he had gathered the strength to jump, the door flew open. In came Steve, gun first, eyes quickly surveying the room.

“Took you long enough!”

Steve finally put his gun down. “Sorry buddy, traffic was hell.”

Danny huffed out a laugh. “Mind giving me a hand here?”

He made his way over to Danny and began inspecting the cuffs. “The team’s five minutes out, Lou should have bolt cutters in his car.”

“You came without backup?!”

“Danno, how many times do I have to tell you? _You’re_ the—”

 _BANG_.

Steve stumbled forwards, catching himself with a hand on Danny’s chest. His gaze dropped, staring blankly at the blossom of red growing on his shirt.

“Danny?” He breathed out, barely a whisper, before sinking bonelessly to the floor.

“No, no, nonono…” Danny yanked frantically at his chains. “Oh my—Steve? Steve?!”

Evil Thug #2 stepped through the doorway and leveled his gun. Steve was lifeless on the ground. Someone was screaming…

* * *

_April 2020: Steve McGarrett’s Residence_

Danny shot upright, a frantic yell caught in his throat. Chest heaving, he blinked through bleary eyes and tried to separate nightmare from reality.

His gaze finally focused on a cracked TV propped in the corner. _Steve’s._ He was at Steve’s. He had been rescued, Daiyu Mei was in prison, and Steve was out swimming. Steve was alive. Steve was…leaving.

Danny tried to force down the bubbling panic that accompanied that thought. Steve would be fine. He wasn’t leaving forever, and besides, he needed this. After the events of the past year or two, the guy had more than earned a break. He’d be okay.

He’d be fine.

But what if he wasn’t?

Five-0 always had enemies coming out of the woodwork. Wo Fat’s wife? _Seriously?_ Who had seen _that_ one coming? Danny made a quick mental note to check the marital histories of the Hesse brothers. Not to mention, Steve wasn’t the best at keeping in touch. That fateful mission to Mexico came to mind.

What if something happened? What if someone targeted Steve? How would they even know?

His current train of thought had him well on the way to hyperventilation. He closed his eyes, tried to slow his breathing. He just needed to get a grip. Anxiety and him were old friends, but it hadn’t been this bad in years. Not since…

A plan began to take shape in his mind. He grabbed the cane propped on the coffee table and pushed himself to his feet with a groan. _Damn that hurts._

Limping heavily—oddly enough, a bad knee doesn’t appreciate a 10 foot drop from a ceiling pipe—Danny made a detour to his computer bag sitting in the study before setting out to conquer the stairs. He had to stop and catch his breath about halfway up. _Move, Williams._

Finally, he made it to Steve’s room. Slumping against the doorway, he surveyed the area. _Where would be a good place for…_

There. Sitting on top of the half zipped duffel was Steve’s watch. A gift from his father. Aside from swimming, it never left Steve’s wrist. Danny sunk gratefully onto the bed, fumbling in the pocket of his sweatpants. Pulled out a battered hello kitty watch that was stuck reading 6:24 a.m.

He carefully pried off the back and tipped a tiny tracking chip into the palm of his hand.

Steve’s watch was a little more difficult to finesse, but after a bit of careful fiddling, he managed to get the chip safely lodged in the back of the casing. He had just returned it to the top of the duffle when he heard the back door squeak.

“Danno?”

As quickly as he could, Danny made his way to the bathroom, flushed the toilet, and ran the sink for a minute. The steady beat of steps on the stairs resounded through the old house. Danny smiled to himself and shut off the water. Steve may be horrible at communication, but he was incredibly predictable. _5, 4, 3, 2…_

He swung the door open to find Steve standing in the hall, fist poised to knock. He had to stifle a laugh as he caught sight of Steve’s expression—a mixture of surprise, concern, and more than a little embarrassment. Steve was quick to shift gears, however, hand coming down to rest on Danny’s shoulder like it was his intention all along.

“Dude, what are you doing up here? I thought you were sleeping! You know the doctor said to keep weight off your knee…”

* * *

(Was the tracking chip overkill? Probably. But hey, it wasn’t Danny’s fault that painkillers made him paranoid. What Steve didn’t know wouldn’t kill him.)

(“Don’t make me come looking for you,” he said three hours later. And he meant it, really, he did. He wanted Steve to have his moment, to come back to the island on his own time. But if the worst should happen, if Steve did end up needing help…well, he was the backup, right?)

**Author's Note:**

> This has been spinning around in my head since poor Danny got left on a beach in April. There's a much larger story here begging to be written, but since my life is hectic and I have the attention span of a squirrel, this is probably going to stay a one shot. 
> 
> It's been a hot sec since I've written anything, so let me know what you think!


End file.
